


In So Many Words

by baybscully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Baby William Fluff, F/M, Post-Existence, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 04:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4906066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baybscully/pseuds/baybscully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a bit of fluff, post-Existence. Sorry. Also I'm really bad at titles. This probably only makes sense in my head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In So Many Words

Scully props herself against the pillows as Mulder lowers William into her arms. He freezes as the baby mews and squirms, afraid he’s woken him. For a moment, their arms intertwine with their son between them.

Satisfied that William is still sound asleep, Mulder places a kiss on Scully’s forehead and slowly untangles himself. She whispers, drawing him closer. “ _Mulder._ ”

She takes his hand, giving it a small squeeze. He searches her eyes, wondering why she is suddenly so serious. When she finally speaks her voice is quiet, but still emphatic.

“ _I love you.”_

He lets out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. She loves him. Of course she does. She had told him before in a hundred different ways.  _Mulder, I wouldn’t put myself on the line for anybody but you. Mulder, I had the strength of your beliefs. Shut up, Mulder, I’m playing baseball._  But there is a difference between feeling the words and hearing the words. Now that she’s finally said them, Mulder knows there is only one possible response.

He ducks his head and lets out a deep sigh, muttering as he turns away. “ _Oh, brother._ ”

Scully holds tight to his hand and pulls him back to her with a laugh. “Hey! No fair.”

He turns his free hand palm-up and gives a small shrug. “I had to,” he grins.

She moves to the middle, making room for him on the bed. He curls up next to her and she settles into the crook of his arm. William fusses a bit at all the movement but settles back into a deep sleep as Scully strokes his cheek.

They lay in comfortable silence, watching their miracle child sleep, marveling at the steady rise and fall of his chest and the fluttering of his eyelids. Mulder begins to drift off himself, when Scully’s voice rouses him.

“You know, in my defense, Mulder, you were pretty heavily medicated and convinced you had traveled back to in time to the 1930s.”

“Ah, but that’s only because I  _had_  gone back to 1939. And you were  _there_.” He taps her side for emphasis, just as he had when he first told her the story of his time on the Queen Anne.

For Mulder, that moment feels like another lifetime.  _Because it was another lifetime_ , he thinks. So much has changed in the two and a half years since, but Scully looks at him with the same skeptical smirk.

“Mulder, there’s no way I traveled back to 1939 with you, and even less of a chance that I traveled back to 1939 and have no memory of it.”

“Maybe it was you in a past life.”

“Maybe it was  _you_  having a dream.”

“Well, if it was, that was some dream, Scully.” He grins at the memory and she raises a quizzical eyebrow. “I kissed you. I can’t believe I never told you that.”

This earns him a rare double-raised eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“In 1939. I kissed you.”

“You mean you kissed a woman who looked like me.”

“You say po- _tay_ -to, I say po- _tah_ -to… There was a chance I’d never see you again.”

“So you  _kissed_  her.”

“And then she decked me.” 

She nods slowly. Mulder can tell she’s moved past her initial dismissal and is considering the implications of his theory. Her next words are quiet and deliberate.

“I hope for your sake it was a dream, Mulder. Because if you’re going around kissing strange women just because they happen to look like me,  _I’m_ going to deck you.”

“But Scully, I thought you  _loved_  me!”

She suppresses a smile at his feigned hurt expression. “Mulder…”

He dips his head to hers and nuzzles her just behind the ear. “ _Say it again,_ ” he whispers.

“I mean it, Mulder.” She pulls away just enough that she can look him in the eye. The smile in her eyes cancels out the fist she holds under his chin. “Right in the kisser.”

He laughs as he takes her mouth with his, a surrender and a promise.

“ _I love you, too, Scully.”_


End file.
